What Can the 223 Remington Really Do?

The USA is a nation of rifleman, big game hunters, deer, elk, and the most popular bestselling center fire rifle in the US today, the 223 Remington. Guess as many things as possible the 30 odd six is kind of the starting point for a good elk loose cartridge. And the 243 is a good starting point for a white tail and mule deer cartridge. And the 22250 is probably the best coyote cartridge.

What’s this puny little 223 Remington good for, well, let me count the ways on this episode of Ron Spomer Outdoors. Hey, we really want to thank our patrons for supporting us. I’ve had to give up a lot of my writing in order to do all these videos, and I really enjoy this work, but of course, somebody’s got to pay the bills and a Patrons, really hear how about. If you would like to join us on Patron, just go to patron.com/RonSpomerOutdoors we’d love to have you. Now the 223 is indeed the top selling center, fire cartridge in the United States and probably Canada and maybe even the world, but why it’s so small, it’s so puny.

It just is not what anyone would consider a great hunting cartridge for anything maybe other than rodents. So why is it so popular? Well, a little history will help prove that and some of the versatility of this cartridge too the 223 Remington evolve during the 1950s search for a new official military round for the US we had the 308 Winchester, the 7.62 NATO as it was called in the military, consider it a little heavy and bulky, so could we lighten the load a little bit and they had certain parameters that had to be met.

They started with the little 222 Remington cartridge, which had been a popular and deadly accurate little target round and varmint round since its inception in 1950s, but it didn’t quite produce the velocity and power that they wanted, so they stretched it out a little bit.
And in the process, they came up with something that Remington turned loose in the public as the 222 Remington Magnum that didn’t have a lot of shelf life because shortly after that, they reduced the size of it to reach just the right particulars that they needed for the new AR 15 style rifles and came up with what they then called the 223 Remington.

And in Remington itself, while the military was still testing all this stuff, they put it in guess what a pump action rifle in 1963, that Remington thing was a 740 or 760. Can’t remember the number on it, but it was a pump that was the first 223 rifle. So, Remington jumped above or ahead of the military and actually released it first as a 223 Remington. Then the military finally accepted it as the 5.56 NATO had become known now. The difference between these two is really not so much in the shapes and dimensions. They’re just about identical. The 556 is a little narrower at the shoulder, probably because they want a little more caper, so they make sure that it extracts easily. And it’s also chambered with a little bit longer throat because the military went with some longer bullets than the commercial version had.

So, they needed to stretch that, throat it out a little bit and they also made a little bit thicker brass. So essentially SAAMI came out with that 223 Remington and gave it 55,000 PSI as your max average chamber pressure.

The military version, that 5.56 NATO is at 58,000 PSI. So, you don’t winna shoot the 5566 and a 223 chamber, but you can go vice versa. It’s just probably smart to stick with using the ammunition that specified on the head stamp as the same as your rifle has on the barrel. But that I think is why the 223 became so popular, it was a military rifle. And think of all the soldiers who learned to shoot rifles for the first time in the military, they’re shooting an AR style, automatic rifle. They transitioned to civilian life and they’re familiar with the 223 or the 556 and they’re also familiar with that style of rifle. So, what they call modern sporting rifles, the AR 15 style, which is a semiautomatic of course, those are extremely popular, and they’re used for a lot of blinking and target shooting and that’s, I think why they’re so popular, that’s why the 223 is so popular. And there are other reasons we’re going to cover them all here.

I made a list of what I think are some of the benefits and what the 223 Remington is really good for. And we’re going to concentrate a lot on the hunting aspects of it, which might surprise you. So, 223 is, I think I’m probably right in the middle I always call those Goldilocks cartridges. Unlike the 22250, it doesn’t burn out your barrels as quickly.

It’s really easy on barrels, not quite as easy as a 222 obviously, because there’s always a powder volume against the diameter of the bullets. So, you can just see by looking at these guys, you’re burning a lot more powder, that’s more heat. You’re going to burn the throat out in your barrel a lot sooner with the 22250. So, middle of the road, it’s not quite as fast as the 250, but it’s a little faster that it’s 222. It strikes a nice balance and of there’s virtually no recoil when they shoot this. And I think that’s another reason it’s so popular, low report, low recoil, easy to shoot, inexpensive animal it’s just a whole lot going through it for it, but you still end up with that question, what’s a good for? Here’s my list.

Hey, if you would like to see more detail on some of these videos, we can’t show everything about guns and ammo and hunting and hand loading and how to do all of this stuff on these public channels. So, we’ve started RSOTV.com where we can show you those details so you might winna check that out, thanks. Training, now if you’re going to start a new shooter, you don’t want a lot of recoil. You don’t winna scare anybody 223 Remington, why not? The 222 just not common anymore this has replaced it, so great for training and learning to shoot. You can work on trigger control instead of flinching. Plinking, well, once you learn to shoot, it’s so much fun. and I think this is why so many rounds of 223 are shot. They just like to shoot balloons and jugs and cans and targets at different distances it’s just a fun rifle to go out and shoot with.

And it’s fairly inexpensive, obviously with that small powder capacity, you’re probably looking at 25 grains of powder to drive those bullets yet it’s just relatively inexpensive. Now, it’s not as inexpensive as a 22 long rifle room fire obviously, but if you’re hand loader, you’ve got your case that you can load again and again and again, so there’s some savings there. So, hunting varmints, now, this is where it really took off in the civilian market. It replaced the 222 which was a great fox and coyote varmint rifle. And it’s used a lot on rock chuck, woodchucks, jack rabbits, all of the rodents that are afflicting your hay fields and stuff, and they’re eating alfalfa and you need to trim that population down.

Why put up with all the expense and noise of a 22250 or a 220 swift and burn your barrels out, get a 223 head and you can do a lot of work with less recoil, less expanse is just a great cartridge for taking care of varmints. But what about getting a little larger animal? I think it’s an optimal predator, hunting round two foxes, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, any of those animals that are threatening chickens out in the barn like we have here, we have to pick off a raccoon every once in a while, out here and a coyote too.

So not as good as the 22250 for long reach, but I think out to 250, 300 yards, plenty good enough. You’re doing to drive a 50 green bullet 3300 feet per second, maybe even 3,400 feet per second, with a 26-inch barrel, great varmint and predator around. You can hunt Javelina is with this thing. Javelina it’s related to pigs, but they’re not as big. They look mean and big and ferocious, a lot of hair and those big teeth that they snap, but really it’s a fairly small animal and I have handled them quite handily with 223.

They’re just not that hard to put down as bow hunters can tell you.

So, it’s good for those, also pronghorn, that’s not a very large, big game animal either probably a hundred pounds. So, 223 is not going to be as effective as at long ranges as say a 243 Winchester or a 25-06 Remington, but it’s got more than enough juice to do the job as you carefully pick your shots. Now what about deer? It’s always argued whether or not this thing is adequate for deer and up to people who think that 243 is probably a starting point for a good deer cartridge. Aren’t going to like the 223, but man there are just so many people in so many places who effectively use the 223 for white deal hunting and even Mueller honey, that you can hardly discount it, obviously it’s not ideal, but again, the right bullet in the right place.

And the fact that these has such minimal recoil, I think anyone can shoot them extremely accurately. So yeah, if it’s legal in your state and it’s not legal in some states, but isn’t others, the 223 does make a darn effective deer hunting rifle out to 200, maybe 250 yards. So a great option for that. What about even larger animals will feral hogs come up, as a good idea, is that a predator or a varmint? I don’t know, it’s kind of an in-between thing. I tell you what it makes for some darn good bacon and ham. A feral hog meat is delicious. So, you could consider a big game animal, but will the 223 handle it? Absolutely, is it ideal? Once again no, especially when you get your larger specimens, but I’ve taken hogs with 50 grain bullets going at this velocity.

It was actually out of a 221 fireball instead of the 223. So the fireball can handle them the 223 can and I put a 50 green varmint bullet behind your shoulder of an 80-pound hog and took it out just fine, dashed off and fell over one note, ran out of air like they always do, but if you’re up against a big angry boar, I wouldn’t want it 223. But if you can pick your shots, generally when you’re doing extermination work on these feral hogs that are damaging property, you’re usually, you’re reaching out there and picking them off. You’re not engaging in barrel to tusk combat with a big bore, the 223 will do the job just use the right bullet.

Now what about really big game? There are a lot of people who use that 223 on elk, moose, caribou, wow. Now, generally these are folks on a budget maybe they’re sustainable use up in the north country where they’re living off the land that a lot of Alaskans and Northern Canadian folks will take moose with the 223 in immediate, extremely popular up there. And of course, the trick is to put the bullet in the right place, wait for your broadside shot and put it behind his shoulder over the top of the heart or through the lungs. And you’re probably going to get your moose, your elk, your caribou.

Now, if you’re a quasi-recreational big game hunter coming out west for your elk hunt, don’t take a 223. Yeah, can do the job when you’re living out, during you’re putting meat on the table. But if you’ve got a big bunch of time and money invested in an elk hunt, you’ve got a week to get the job done you might not get close enough for a 223 shot. You might not get the perfect position of the head hog. Can it do the job Yes, is that ideal? No, so it’s got versatility folks. If you’re looking for 224 cartridge family, 223 Remington, despite that strange three in the title is one that’ll shoot it and it’s a great Goldilocks cartridge right in the middle of the pack. Hey, thanks for watching, if you can subscribe to our channel, it would really help.

And of course, we have to thank our Patrons because they really help us produce these.

We really appreciate the support you guys, if you’d like to join our Patron community, go to patron.com.com, Ron Spomer Outdoors, and we’ll sign you up. And if you would like to see more in-depth videos on guns and shooting with a lot of the details that we can’t show on some of these public formats, go to RSOTV.com and get the rest of this story. Ron Spomer signing off thanks for watching shoot straight.

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